By Neil Johnson, reporter/anchor, Big Radio
The Janesville City Council will delay a vote until late October–the end of the outdoor dining season–to decide whether to return authority to the Alcohol License Advisory Commission and the council to vet and approve outdoor dining patios.
It means no action on a proposal to kill a COVID-19-era rule enacted in 2020 that gives the city building director power to vet and approve outdoor dining and alcohol proposals on public sidewalks.
Council Member Paul Williams, who brought the ordinance change, says liquor board and council oversight offers more public transparency in expanded alcohol sales than a process now led by a single city employee.
Williams says he’s not interested in curtailing outdoor dining setups that 12 businesses already set up through the 2020 city ordinance change, initially an emergency measure to aid restaurants that were scuffling during COVID lock downs.
Council President Paul Benson says the city should continue legal research but wait for the outside dining season to end before deciding whether to return authority to the liquor commission and council. The issue comes back to the council October 23.
By then, Benson points out, outdoor dining season would be wrapping up for the winter.
Williams gave the city a legal opinion by the nonprofit, state-funded Wisconsin Alcohol Policy Project that states the city may be unlawfully approving outdoor dining areas under its COVID-era practice that gives the city’s building inspector sole oversight over outdoor dining.
Williams and council member Heather Miller both pointed out that a state Department of
Revenue official told Williams the city is mistaken in its read on the law, although no state authority has told the city it has acted wrongly.
Benson and Janesville City Attorney Wald Klimczyk say they’re not worried about sanctions from state officials, because the rule’s been in place since 2020 and hasn’t faced any serious challenge by the state.
Klimczyk said the city has every right to cede commission and council consideration on outdoor dining to a city employee. Benson says he’s not worried about letting outdoor dining continue through the fall for the 12 restaurants who got patios OK’d by the building director because.
He and other council members point out that since 2020, there have been no complaints to police or the city over operations at any of the 12 restaurants.
Rich Neeno, a city council member who owns Lark, a downtown restaurant granted outdoor dining under the city rule change, discussed and voted on the issue Monday night.
Neeno asked for clarity on what would happen to his outdoor dining permit at Lark if the city reverted to council and liquor commission oversight of patio dining. He also cast a vote to delay a policy decision on patio dining until the end of October.
On Monday, Williams asked Janesville City Attorney Wald Klimczyk if it was ethical for Neeno, a restaurant owner with a stake in outdoor dining, to discuss and vote on the issue.
Klimczyk said he saw no ethical violation or conflict of interest in Neeno being involved in the policy discussion and vote Monday.
